Alastair Brown sailed his ILCA 7/Laser to victory at the inaugural Grafham Belle on the last weekend of May. Competing in round 2 of the Selden SailJuice Winter Series, Brown’s three bullets from six races gave the Stokes Bay/ Great Moor SC sailor overall victory after a tiebreak with reigning Series Champions, the 2000 team of Simon Horsfield and Katie Burridge from Thorney Island SC.
Just two points behind the leaders and taking third place overall was the Solo of Matthew Frary from Norfolk Broads Yacht Club, who had been overnight leader at the end of Saturday.
Enter Here
Sailors were happy to have emerged out of a long lockdown winter to be racing against and alongside each other after so few competitions. Despite an unpromising weather forecast of little wind and wintery conditions in the week, competitors were treated to glorious conditions on both days, with winds gusting into double figures, albeit shifty under the passing clouds. Principal race officer Nigel Denchfield and his team at Grafham Water SC did a great job of delivering the full six average lap races in the shifty and variable conditions.
Other race winners included the faster boats such as Tom Gillard & Richard Pepperdine’s 505 winning the second race followed by Colin and Oly Murray’s Norfolk Punt which took victory in the third heat. There was a good showing of 4000s at Grafham, with the home club’s team of David Marchant and Rory Moppett winning their class and finishing 16th overall.
Scoring was run to the Great Lakes PY handicap numbers, with seven classes filling the top 10 overall. All boats carried SailRacer trackers from the sub-category results are calculated, of which more below:
Results
https://enter.sailracer.org/eventsites/content.asp?eventid=221124&id=48200&templ=219052
SpeedSix fastest
David ANNAN Musto Skiff 535 9.85 kts
Adjusted
Peter CURTIS RS500 1681 9 kts
Category rankings (based on extracted results)
Fast Asymmetric
1st Norfolk Punt 94 Yorkshire Dales SC Colin MURRAY Oly MURRAY
2nd RS500 1681 Grafham Water SC Peter CURTIS James CURTIS
3rd RS400 971 Grafham Water Sailing Club Simon KITCHEN Abbi HOOPER
Fast Symmetric
1st 505 9177 Staunton Harold Tom GILLARD Richard PEPPERDINE
2nd 505 9196 SBSC Penny CLARK Russ CLARK 883 1975 FEMALE
3rd Fireball 14844 Port Dinorwic Kath BROATCH Joy JAMES
Slow Asymmetric
1st 2000 22658 Thorney Island Sailing Club Simon HORSFIELD Katie BURRIDGE
2nd RS Vareo 162 WOBYC Nick CRICKMORE
3rd RS Vareo 407 Emberton Park SC Luke FISHER
Slow
1st Solo 5953 Norfolk Broads Yacht Club Matthew FRARY
2nd Laser 199007 Stokes Bay SC/Great Moor SC Alastair BROWN
3rd Solo 5904 Paxton Lakes SC Patrick OVERS
Lady
1st Challenger 312 Rutland Sailing Club Val MILLWARD
Craftinsure Family Rankings
505 9196 Penny and Russ Clark
Next events in the Selden SailJuice Winter Series take place on the opposite side of the country. On the east coast is a long distance 26-miler, the Medway Marathon on Saturday 19 June. Meanwhile in north Wales it’s an inland marathon for those competing in the popular Bala Long Distance, at Bala SC on 19 & 20 June.
click here for more details: sailjuiceseries.com
THE EVENTS
The following events will count towards the scoring of the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2020/21:
Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water SC, 6-7 December 2020
Grafham Belle, Grafham Water SC, 29-30 May 2021
Medway Marathon, Medway YC, 19 June 2021
Bala Long Distance, Bala SC, 10-11 July 2021
Tiger Trophy, Rutland Water SC, 28-29 August 2021
You can find out more about the Series here: www.SailJuiceSeries.com
Further Information for media:
Please contact Andy Rice
email: info@sailjuice.com
Phone: 020 8133 9330
Website: www.sailjuice.com
Photo Credits: Tim Olin
Notes to editors:
Previous winners of the Seldén Sailjuice Winter Series
2019/20 Simon Horsfield & Katie Burridge (2000)
2018/19 Simon Horsfield & Katie Burridge (2000)
2017/18 Alistair Goodwin (Laser)
2016/17 Matt Mee & Emma Norris (RS200)
2015/16 Ian Dobson & Andy Tunnicliffe (GP14)
2014/15 Nick Craig & various crews (Merlin Rocket)
2013/14 Michael Sims (Solo)
2012/13 Tom Gillard & Simon Potts (Fireball)
2011/12 Peter Gray & Rachael Rhodes (Scorpion)
2010/11 Andy Peake (Musto Skiff)
2009/10 Olly Turner & Richard Whitworth (Merlin Rocket)
SailJuice.com is the ‘how to sail and race faster’ website, with hundreds of articles and exclusive interviews with National, World and Olympic Champions. Professional sailing journalist and editor of SailJuice.com, Andy Rice, came up with the concept of the SailJuice Winter Series (originally known as the SailJuice Global Warm-Up) as a way of increasing participation levels in dinghy racing during the off-season in the UK.
SailRacer manages event websites and processes online entry for major National, International, Youth and training events, providing online scoring, analysis and advanced sports presentation including GPS tracking and live video.
Seldén Mast Ltd is the world leader in dinghy spars. More races are won by Seldén Spars than any other brand. Dinghy spars are made using Seldén unique XPS aluminium with CNC cut tapers, automated welding and heat treating resulting in the highest quality and most consistent dinghy spars available. Seldén also produces about 400 carbon masts per year for boats including high performance dinghies and race yachts using state of the art Mandrel Filament Moulding Technology.